The corner of the blogosphere that questions power is still seething from seeing two of the most reviled figures in the Conservative “yes-man online power structure” (YMOPS) obtain dead-tree page space in a National paper.
The National Post could be taken seriously if they offered Pale their pages. Instead, I may as well discount the “National Pap” among the YMOPS.
Cause…..If one looks back into history. We really haven’t got a Government right now. We have a corporation.
I wasn’t sure how Pale would react to me registering to comment there (recently they’re among the crowd putting the boots to me), so I figured I had to write this here to let them know what a great article that is.
I guess times are bad in Canada. I’m doing fine, but I’m the exception, and we’ll all be joining the rule at some point in the next 20 years or so. I’m not among the Canadian elite who figure $5B is enough to cure child poverty in ~5 years. (From Question Period on CTV) What, do the Liberals know how to build an “everything’s ok gun” for $5B? Odds are the use of it would be prohibited thanks to previous laws anyway. I’m also not so drunk on Conservative Koolaid to buy Prentice’s ludicrous claim that the Child Tax Benefit of $1200 TAXABLE dollars was the Conservatives’ major push to tackle child poverty.
Most Canadians are not happy with Harper, but he’s not got a lot of big name competition at the moment. The Canadians who are happy with Harper, such as Kate McMillan, well she doesn’t think times are bad enough in Canada for enough people to come over to being interested in politics (and Harper’s brand in particular). We’d need some kind of disaster (famine) before Canadians will really want to support Harper conservatism. Odd; I have entertained the same morbid possibility of an oil/food crisis being a boost for the Green Party (which is an unacceptably partisan thought, but one I had anyway).
I’d have to agree with both Pale and Kate that Canada isn’t living up to its potential. We’re a country in decline. Our military isn’t large enough to do the things we expect from it. Our infrastructure isn’t new enough, or green enough to take us into the next decade, let alone the next century. Our schools can’t be closed fast enough to funnel our children across as few teachers as possible to [supposedly] save a buck. We can’t dig into the ground fast enough to
extract a limited polluting resource that is running out (and is thus destined to become even more valuable if we hang onto it for longer).
Unfortunately, Harper is not going to lead us anywhere because he’s not a person with any leadership vision. That’s the utter irony of the “Stephane Dion is not a leader” attack ad campaign. Harper is a terrible leader, he’s a control freak for sure, and an ego maniac who can’t delegate. He intends to hitch Canada’s wagon to the [failing] American white picket fence dream, instead of making it possible for Canadians to carve out our own destiny in the world.
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(famine of ideas: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=306732&p=1 )
Kinsella’s blog has been almost interesting the last couple of weeks.
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Iran, as you probably haven’t seen it before.
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We need someone with guts in charge of the country. Someone like this guy who interviewed John Lennon. I look forward to seeing, “I Met the Walrus,” one day.
@hotmail.com
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.efc.ca/images/efcfreet.gif)
Saskatchewan Politics - How Canada Was | Saskapedia | 18-Feb-08 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
[...] How Canada Was February 18th, 2008 The corner of the blogosphere that questions power is still seething from seeing two of the most reviled figures in the Conservative “yes-man online power structure” (YMOPS) obtain dead-tree page space in a National paper. The National Post could be taken seriously if they offered Pale their pages. Instead, I may as well discount the “National Pap” among the YMOPS. Cause…..If one looks back into history. We really haven’t got a Government right now. We h Read More… [...]
Candace | 18-Feb-08 at 8:14 pm | Permalink
Wow. Let me get this straight - you are bummed out because even though your life is going well, parts of the rest of the country isn’t so rather than enjoy your current state, you’d rather wallow in anticipation of crappy times to come?
Well, if that works for you.
I agree that Pale’s post was well-written, and while I grew up on the opposite end of the political scale (I remember my grandfather and father both swearing at Trudeau on the TV screen, and Mulroney toward the end of his run in office), I agree that the apathy that exists across the country (and not just the voting public, but the public in general) is a problem. I’m not sure, however, what can be done to fix that barring some megawatt personality entering the political fray or some disaster or other.
I would argue, though, that it’s difficult to b*tch about schools providing job training vs. teaching critical thinking skills (either in the original post or the comments) when those same people expect students to watch Gore’s BS in a science class without watching the film that argues the opposite side of the point. Where’s the critical thinking there? Or is it only critical thinking if it’s critical of a viewpoint you oppose vs agree with?
You seem to have surrendered to the same groupthink, Saskboy, at least in this post:
“I guess times are bad in Canada. I’m doing fine, but I’m the exception, and we’ll all be joining the rule at some point in the next 20 years or so…”
I call BS. You live in a province that actually has some resources, and a gov’t willing to use those resources to drive an economy, similar to the province I live in (although I sure hope your gov’t learns from our mistakes and avoids some of them). Neither of us live in a province that has consistently relied on manufacturing (either cars or lumber or steel) as a base, even though it’s been obvious for at least the past decade that we are moving into (and are probably now more in than out of) a knowledge-based economy.
That the Ont & Que gov’ts chose to ignore that fact and not address that in their education systems doesn’t create an economic nightmare for either you or me. That the Ont & Que gov’ts have consistently applied nanny-state bandaids rather than providing the job training and/or education to those stuck in declining industries shouldn’t create an economic nightmare for us, either.
Why are so many people immigrating to Canada? Because of our political stability and our economy (at least, the second part is why they are moving to western Canada). That’s also why so many are moving west - because we actually have a thriving economy here.
“Harper is not going to lead us anywhere because he’s not a person with any leadership vision.”
I disagree. He certainly DOES have a leadership vision. That it is one you don’t like doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.
*climbs off soapbox*
Zhu | 18-Feb-08 at 8:14 pm | Permalink
I’m not happy with Harper yet I don’t see anyone else PM for now. Same situation in France a few months ago: they ended up with Sarkozy because the left-wing candidate was an idiot.
Saskboy | 18-Feb-08 at 9:05 pm | Permalink
“you are bummed out because even though your life is going well, parts of the rest of the country isn’t so rather than enjoy your current state, you’d rather wallow in anticipation of crappy times to come?”
I wouldn’t say I’m “bummed out”. I am just enjoying our wealth with the bittersweet knowledge that I’m the exception in the world when it comes to power and [relative] wealth, and I can foresee a time within my lifetime when I (like most Canadians) will join the world’s poorer class if I survive the resource crunch at all.
“when those same people expect students to watch Gore’s BS in a science class without watching the film that argues the opposite side of the point.”
I think people should see the other side of the “point”. The problem is many people arguing for the “other side” don’t want to balance the “point”, they want to balance the facts with falsehoods that benefit only themselves.
“That the Ont & Que gov’ts chose to ignore that fact and not address that in their education systems doesn’t create an economic nightmare for either you or me.”
I’d say it affects us a great deal, if only that we share the same dollar and federal government.
“I disagree. [Harper] certainly DOES have a leadership vision. That it is one you don’t like doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.”
Not only is it one that I don’t like, having the TITLE of Conservative party LEADER, doesn’t make him a leader. A leader should know where things are going, and prepare us for not only the present but the future. You said as much about Ontario leaders, and Harper’s political buddy Mike Harris is partly responsible for that failing province. Canada is filled with political leaders who are operating on what worked in the past before certain realities about sustainability entered the social consciousness.
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Zhu, it’s such a common thing I see in politics [these days, and maybe for always]. People vote for what they settle for, instead of for what they want.
Candace | 18-Feb-08 at 9:33 pm | Permalink
Re Ont/Que: “I’d say it affects us a great deal, if only that we share the same dollar and federal government.”
Yes and no. It affects, to some degree (diminishing as the population moves, but barring the entire Ont population moving west, there will always be an effect) who makes up our federal government, but that doesn’t have that huge of an effect on yours or my day-to-day activities. Our municipal and provincial gov’ts have a much bigger impact.
Yes, we share the same dollar. But how come the Toyota and Honda plants are doing better than the “not-so-big-anymore 3″? Because they are building something Canadians want to buy. Why isn’t McGuinty or Buzz demanding that, if Ford et al want tax breaks they need to build “real” cars, not the idiotic muscle and gas guzzler cars currently on the assembly lines in Ontario. To plagiarize/summarize Obama, we should quit giving tax breaks to stupid companies. Period.
The whole softwood lumber thing will soon blow up again, I’m guessing, due to the downward spiral in housing starts in the US. What have the lumber companies been doing in preparation? What have the various provinces been doing about retraining the forestry industry workers? Buggar all, I’m betting, and before you slam Harper, that’s currently a provincial responsibility, not federal.
It’s not that I have no sympathy for the workers, I do. My father was laid off at 55 in the mid-80s and watching him and my mom struggle at a time in their lives when things should have been somewhat relaxed wasn’t fun (nor, I’m sure, was living it). Mom went to work for the first time in decades to help out, and Dad eventually got work back on the tools (he’d been in construction mgmt) and they got by, but it was tough.
I have a career that pretty much requires a strong economy, as when nobody’s hiring, recruiters aren’t usually in high demand. I’m doing what I can, now, to broaden my portfolio so if a downturn comes I can still get by. But I see that as MY responsibility, not Stelmach’s. When it comes to industries, though, there does need to be a bigger plan in place, and I’m not seeing that anywhere. The feds have already provided funding, but it’s up to the provinces to figure out how it will be spent, and they need to get off their collective a$$e$ and do something sooner rather than later.
Then maybe we’d ALL be in relatively good shape.
Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy » Blog Archive » Writing that gives blogging a bad name | 24-Mar-08 at 9:54 am | Permalink
[...] she’s endeared herself with more Canadians by calling for a national catastrophic famine to wipe out socialist pansies, and made fun of Kinsella by making fun of holocaust survivors. SDA now reads (and possibly always [...]